Tibet Kitchen

Next up, it was Tibetan food at the aforementioned Tibet Kitchen. I had actually passed this place many many times and thought to myself “Oooh, I’ll try that”, never got round to it, and thought the same again when I passed it later.

Before the visit, I had no real impression of what the food would be like. The few Tibetans I’ve met over the years, combined with the anecdotes from long termers here about the old days, have led me to think of Tibetans as hardy folk, who are truly hard as nails. I wondered if that would be reflected in the food.

Dining with me, was my old mucker TheBoolion a gentleman who can legitimately say he has seen all the 1000 films you should see before you die. Honestly, you can try to be all intellectual and say stuff like “Yes well..HAVE you seen Professor Challinor’s 1963 documentary on the medicinal benefits of skunk spray hmmm? HMMMM?”  Boo will reply “Not only have I seen that, but I’ve also heard his lecture tour where he gave a series of rebuttals to his earlier work”.  

And he wouldn’t be lying.

Boo is also a vegetarian, which is important here because again, my initial impressions of the food were it would probably be a hardy meat festival. Luckily, Tibet Kitchen does cater to vegetarians, and there are also Indian dishes on the menu. As Boo isn’t doing the challenge he was happy to have Indian.

I however, went full Tibet and had the beef shaptak (choice of chicken or beef), which I can only describe as being what a Chinese stir fry would be like if it had come from India. Very nice indeed.  I ordered tingmo to go with it, which is very doughy bread that kind of looks like a mantou, same consistency  and everything but ridiculously filling. For those of you across the seas, a mantou is a steamed bun thing which is popular here and are generally eaten for breakfast.

So would I go again? Yeah prob’ly. Décor as you would expect, picture of the Dalai Lama, TV screen showing Tibetan language music videos (like you’d get in an Indian restaurant). Staff as polite and unintrusive as you’d want.  Exotic enough I guess to be outside my norm. So yeah, thumbs up.

The end is so close. 50 to go!

217, Section 2, HePing East Road, Taipei City

Prices around 250

Boo had the lunch set that came with drink, naan and main for 220